Tariq Aziz: "Working with Unscom is bitter, and it's too expensive"

Deputy PM Tariq Aziz: "We are just protecting our rights"

Mr Aziz said Iraq was simply trying to defend its interests in seeking to get United Nations sanctions lifted.

"We are not gambling, and we are not seeking confrontation. We are just protecting our rights," he said .

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Aziz said that Iraq would settle for nothing less than a removal of the sanctions that have strangled its economy and the sacking of Richard Butler, the head of the Unscom team.

He also accused the United States, through the UN, of changing an agreement reached with the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, in August.

In Washington, the American Defence Secretary, William Cohen, told reporters that Iraq could face military attack if it did not co-operate with the UN.

Richard Downes in Baghdad: "Iraq will not budge"

Mr Cohen said he woull prefer any action to be in conjunction with America's allies - but unilateral attack was an option.

Earlier on Sunday the Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan confirmed that it will not reverse its decision to stop co-operating with Unscom.

Iraq also demands the sacking of Unscom chief Richard Butler

"There will be no co-operation, no inspections and no monitoring [of Iraqi sites] by the US-Zionist spy commission until Iraq's demands are met," he said.

He reiterated Iraq's demands for a lifting of the embargo imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

"We will not reverse our decision but we will maintain it until the embargo is lifted," Mr Ramadan said.

Iraq has also demanded the sacking of the UN Special Commission chief Richard Butler is sacked.

Baghdad has long accused Mr Butler of working on behalf of the United States to prolong the embargo.

The sanctions cannot be lifted until the Special Commission (Unscom) certifies that Iraq has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction.

Security Council condemnation

Iraq insists it has done so, but the commission says Baghdad continues to hide information on weapons, especially those with biological and chemical agents.

Rob Watson: "Clear and unanimous UN disapproval"

The Security Council has unanimously condemned the decision and demanded that it be reversed "immediately and unconditionally".

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein: Lifting sanctions a priority

But on Sunday the Unscom team stayed in its compound.

Our correspondent says that the international community now effectively has no eyes or ears in Iraq.

Only a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in charge of the nuclear folder in Iraq's disarmament, has been allowed to carry on working.

But it is only being allowed to monitor previously inspected sites.

The Iraqis have been refusing to allow either Unscom or the IAEA to carry out spot inspections in the country since early August.